Memories in the Attic
by obsessedatopia
Summary: Callie and Jesus are forced to clean out the attic and Stef and Lena are forced down memory lane. Fluff/reflective one-shot loosely set after 4x02.


**Hi friends! It has been a long time, I know. I have been rather occupied with a wedding, new job and graduating and unfortunately that isn't great circumstances for fic writing. For anyone who is reading my OUaT fic, that will be completed (it is already written) but I felt I owed it to my Fosters friends to get a fic out there, even though I am a bit rusty (and for that I apologise). For anyone who may be interested in a multi-chapter fic in OUaT universe (adventure story) I will be picking that up and posting the final chapter soon (It is called _Puppets of Power_ ).**

 **Anyhow, back to business. This is a simple one shot, mainly fluff but brushing upon some deeper tones of the current season. I've never written a Jesus/Callie fic before so I wanted to do one with them together, especially as they both brushed along some trouble this season and the moms are in there too. It's sort of set soon after Nick has been arrested but close enough to Callie's suspension and the shooting for the events to make sense. It is less of a missing scene though and more just loosely based in those circumstances. Thanks to _thesameguest_ and _goodgirlz333_ for helping me with it and I'm sorry if it's a little messy or not up to standard - I had a writing itch but it has been a while. It would be great to hear from some of you and catch up so do message or review if you are so inclined! I do miss my fanfic buddies!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"This is so unfair." Jesus gave a disgruntled pan of the attic after flicking the light on, Callie following behind through the hatch.

"It always is." Stef answered from the ladder, popping her head up followed by the rest of her body as Callie dusted off her knees.

"Most of this stuff isn't even ours, it's definitely not Callie's. Why do we have to sort it out?" Jesus continued to protest.

"Because that's what a punishment is, Jesus. Maybe you'll think twice now about ditching class to be with your girlfriend and Callie might about hopping onto motorbikes with strange men when she's meant to be suspended." She looked them both up and down. "You will hopefully learn how to make better choices."

"One, Emma is not my girlfriend and two, I was already grounded for that - " He continued as Stef raised her hands and placed them on his shoulders, clasping him in a semi-hug.

"And as you were so fast to point out at the time, everyone was stuck in the house then so I think this is a fair compromise. Do this and you're off the hook." She looked at her daughter as Jesus sighed.

Callie remained silent. Now she knew she was secure in the house any other penance seemed minor. She couldn't say she was thrilled but there was a sweet normality to it. Jesus, however, had his mind filtering through about 20 other things he'd rather be doing right now.

"We'll get through it pretty fast." She assured her brother. He still wasn't convinced as he huffed his disapproval. Stef gave him a slap on the back as she paced further into the mess.

"It's pretty simple. These piles were tossed up here with all the room changes in the house. When I was looking at the rat traps I noticed how disordered it was and I want it sorted. Here's a stack of empty boxes, toss the loose things into boxes for everyone; me, Mama, Brandon - "

"Of course he's not being made to do it -" Jesus muttered as Stef cut him off by tossing him an empty box that he caught with ease.

"Well until Brandon sees sense he's not going to be around to do it -" Stef replied, slightly raw from his flightiness still but doing her best not to show it. "No more bitching, just do it, Jesus. I'm not arguing any more."

"What if we don't know whose is whose?" Callie asked innocently, pulling a face at a strange wooden mask that was lying next to her. Stef took it off her and examined it with a similar look of distaste. "Assume it was a gift from my mother's travels and put it in the ' _keep in case it comes up again'_ box. The rest Jesus should at least be able to guess." She snapped her fingers as her son had wandered onto his phone; they'd only had them back a couple of days since life had calmed down.

"Don't even." She warned taking it off him again as he rolled his eyes and made her way to the hatch.

"I'd expect it to not take more than an hour, any longer you are just wasting your own time." She shouted up, climbing down and putting the phone safely in her pocket.

"But I need to reply to Emma-"

"I thought she wasn't your girlfriend." Stef goaded as Jesus rolled his eyes unimpressed.

"Maybe I should go live with Brandon too. Apparently then we're untouchable."

"Get money to pay Cortney rent, turn 18 and learn how to make your own breakfast and maybe we'll talk. Now get on with it." Stef ended her contribution as she hopped off the ladder, determined to have the last word.

Jesus mimicked her childhishly as Callie snorted out a smirk.

"If its any consolation, I am not totally sure Brandon has a more peaceful arrangement the way that Mom's handling it." She observed as Jesus kicked at a tower of folders full of pictures and school work of Mariana's. "Why would anyone want to keep old school books?" He raised an eyebrow tossing a handful of the papers into one of the boxes.

"My guess is we're going to need more than one _'Mariana'_ box." Callie laughed as she tackled a pile of her own.

"But I'd also wonder why anyone would keep a tin full of old rocks..." She spluttered again unleashing a dusty cloud from opening a rusting tin of stones. Jesus dived forward.

"Hey do you know how far I had to go to get some of those." He replied, smiling as he looked into it. "When we first moved here I hadn't spent much time on beaches." He added with a twinge of pink in his cheeks as he saw Callie smiling at him.

"Well I think being able to keep this stuff is awesome." She added wistfully, knowing full well that none of these boxes would have her name on them.

Jesus noted the look in her eyes as he closed the box.

"Yeh. I remember what it was like. I'm sure you'll gather your own crap soon enough." He tossed the box into his own with a much louder clatter than he had anticipated. "And sorry for that..." he added as Callie winced.

"Yeh..." She shook her ear as it rung from the sound of the crash. She had come to terms with her lack of belongings many years ago. Her mind was more consumed with other deep thoughts. "It's not that I miss having my stuff; I'm over that." She admitted as she picked up a doll from a pile that was heavily made up with coloured pencils. Mariana's too?" She asked as Jesus looked round.

"No, Brandon's." He replied deadpan as Callie looked back surprised.

"Yes that _was_ a joke. As you guessed - Queen Mariana, the hoarder of all." He reaffirmed as Callie tossed it in. "Oh, but that one is Brandon's. He went through a doctor phase..." He pointed at the next doll in the pile, this one naked, one-legged and decorated with detailed plans of where different badly drawn organs could be found below its shell of a stomach.

"I think it's a good thing his plans changed." she commented dropping the poor looking soul into Brandon's box.

"What was the weirdest thing you were into?" Jesus asked, flicking through an old colouring book that promptly joined the growing Mariana pile.

"I'm not that sure." She mused, trying to think back. "I guess I really liked art. I would draw a lot. Then it turned into photography." She thought about the project she had decided to do. The organised chaos of the attic felt like a fitting backdrop. All of these objects around her that had somehow formed a piece of her siblings and parents; each one with their own story. Her story was more in the collection of memories, never having been in the same place, but it was still her journey. The experiences that defined her. Her thoughts were interrupted as a projectile went howling past her ear with a whirl as she flew up in the air with a jump.

"What the hell was that?" She shot back with a hesitant grin, throwing it at a laughing Jesus.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist." He laughed as he shifted one of the boxes onto another pile before leaping back as a threatening _"MUAM-MA...HAA!"_ rung out from below it. Just as his heart had calmed, the noise broke into a slow motion, hysterical and deepened laugh as he tore the box off and saw the culprit. Callie sauntered over and grabbed at a rogue foot.

"Another one of Mariana's, I believe." She replied smugly, happy to have seen him get his own back in the jump scares. "I did have one of these dolls back before my mom died. It didn't sound quite as terrifying when the batteries weren't so drained though." She laughed, tossing it into the box as Jesus tried to recover his smile after the shock.

"So who was the guy on the motorcycle Mom mentioned?" Jesus probed baitingly, filling the silence.

Callie thought over her recent, spontaneous indiscretion, still unsure of what she was really thinking.

"I dunno. Some adventure maybe? It was pretty dumb." She dismissed it, feeling embarrassed. "I was just feeling...I don't know..."

"Untouchable. Yeh. I get that." Jesus thought back to the last few weeks he'd had, especially with everything that had happened with Gabe and Nick. "I guess it was a bit like Nick and I..." he paused, realising he was ready to pour into some of the stupid stuff he'd done as Callie looked eager to listen.

"We just did some dumb things. I guess I had no idea how crazy he was." Jesus voice went a little low, thinking back to the fear he'd had in the school as he quickly shook it off. "But anyway, Mariana's safe now I guess."

Callie hadn't thought much about Jesus in all of this, she never thought too much about him anyway, he always seemed so self-sufficient and relaxed that she'd not considered the effect the recent evens with his best friend may had had on him.

"You know, it's OK to be weirded out by it." She assured him, as he began to spin a wheel on a toy car, thinking about all of those times they had been reckless on the road. He looked at her comforting eyes, clearly ready to listen. The truth is, he hadn't thought much about it either. Jesus had never been the processing type. He was a reactor. Unsure of what to say he just shrugged trying to fight off the complexities that were pushing through.

"And I found Gabe through him. That was pretty cool. Not that that didn't screw things up a little too..." he paused, "but...anyway."

He placed the car down before kicking it gently till it zipped along and hit his box. Callie nodded gently, studying his face and seeing the desire not to have to think about either topic - but at the same time, she saw the desperation to find resolution.

"For what it's worth...I think there's always some good that comes from finding out more about who you are." She shifted a pile of newspapers saved from various landmark events into the _'Lena'_ box. "Everything that happens makes us...even if we then have to try and sort it all out." She took in another view of how much they still had to do.

As she thought, Jesus spotted something behind one of the boxes that caught his eye. It was a packet of photographs that had obviously slipped from another box.

"How about this for memories?" Jesus smiled as he opened them. "They've even got a weird plastic version. I guess you must be able to plug that into the computer or something..."

"They're the negatives." Callie scolded him snatching them carefully from his mishandling.

"I know, I'm not that dumb." He replied pulling out the main versions. "I wonder why Moms don't have these in the albums…" He poked his tongue out showing a photo of Stef and Lena in what looked like a less than sober state. Both looked significantly younger and with various strangers around them.

"They can't have been together for long at this point." Callie commented with a smile. "They look so young. Lena's hair is so straight!"

"Yeh…this was before Mariana and me were here for sure. God! Look at this one!" Jesus laughed as he flicked through to another one of Stef balancing precariously on a statue with Lena's, no doubt worried, hand reaching out to her just clipping the shot. The next in the pack was of a pouting Lena with folded arms, clearly on the other side of the shot and trying not to show that she was not really smiling. The next was of the two of them, both up on the statue together with a sunset and daring drop behind them.

"I wonder if they thought about the consequences of these choices they made." Jesus handed another to Callie, eagerly, this time one of an excited Lena with an unhappy looking police officer who didn't seem to appreciate her having grabbed an arm round him and pointing with a dappy grin on her face.

"It's cute to see them having fun though." Callie smiled as she was handed another, examining them each in turn.

"Yeh…a bit too much fun at times!" Jesus held up another with a disbelieving smirk showing that the next scene seemed to be Lena leaping away with the officer's hat, the officer lunging after all framed with Stef's skewed photography skills.

"Definitely more carefree, that's for sure." They heard the creak of the ladder below and thinking fast, they shoved the photos back in the casing, Jesus plunging it behind his back as Lena emerged up from the ladder.

"How are you guys getting on?" She asked, taking a skim of the attack. "Mom sent me up patrolling." both of the kids suppressing grins.

"Got your officer's cap on, huh, Mama?" Jesus giggled, failing miserably at trying to contain it as Callie swiped at him gently, both trying to lose the image in their head of their mischievous Mama's past.

"Something funny?" Lena screwed up her face, vaguely paranoid.

"Just uhm…bonding. It's amazing what you find up here." Jesus replied, biting his bottom lip.

"Kind of fun reliving the old memories." Callie added.

"Oooooold memories." Jesus emphasised, his eyes glowing as Lena looked suspiciously between them both.

"Well don't be having too much fun. We're hoping you'll both be reflecting on your choices while you're up here."

"Got it." Callie nodded.

"Yeh, I guess these things can come back to haunt you if you're not careful." Jesus said plainly as Callie nudged him briskly, diving her head over her shoulder to hide her growing crack of a smile. This time they didn't get away with it as Jesus' twitching arm caught his mother's eye.

"Alright, whatever it is hand it over." She ordered, holding out her hand as Jesus and Callie looked at each other. Reluctantly, Jesus stretched out his arm as Lena raised an eyebrow opening it up. As soon as she saw the first one she rolled her eyes.

"We were just enjoying our first few months of being able to be openly together." She explained.

"And what better way to celebrate than wreaking havoc on unsuspecting officers." Jesus replied bluntly as Lena flicked through, trying to suppress her own, fond nostalgia from surfacing.

"Did you get arrested? How seriously do they take hat theft there?"

"OK, OK. You…guys just carry on. We'll do the reminiscing later." She fluffed, deciding it was safer to deal with the goading when Stef was there for backup.

"You're going to destroy the pictures aren't you?" Callie folded her arms.

"No, I'm going to enjoy them with my wife. You guys get back to work." She ordered, descending again.

"Well that's the last we'll see of those." Jesus sighed, returning to the boxes.

* * *

"You will never guess what the kids found up there..." Lena tossed the paper case onto Stef's lap as she took her eyes off her paperwork and readjusted her glasses to inspect the package. A laugh trickled across her face.

"Of course they'd find this one. The only evidence that exists of you, _Saint Lena_ , being rebellious."

"Oh stop!" Lena nipped her gently as she settled beside her wife. "I have been plenty rebellious and I am no saint. It was a fun weekend though..."

"It certainly was..." Stef muttered vaguely, more interested in revisiting the pictures as they flicked through.

"What was that guy's name? From that couple in the bar we got talking to?"

"Herc. Or Herb. Whatever it was I'll not forget the look on his girlfriend's face when he finally picked up her not-so-subtle hints that we were in fact a couple."

"In fairness to his wits, he was stoned to high heaven."

"He was?" Lena's eyes widened as Stef took her glasses off to give her wife a disbelieving look.

"Lena, he spent 10 minutes describing their cat. Then again you weren't much better at that point. I think this was towards the end of bottle 2."

"I was not that bad." Lena scolded playfully.

"Uhuh." Stef teased producing the next photo of the now infamous hat thief as Lena pawed it down. "I'm glad the kids saw this, now I look like the sensible one. Challenging one of America's Finest! Honestly."

"Oh at least I'm not one of America's Finest forcing her girlfriend to hang off a building with her!" Lena defended herself holding up the proof of Stef's indiscretions in the photo of them both perching on the statue. "Good luck getting Jesus to stop scaling trees next time we go camping!"

"Fine, fine!" Stef teased back as they playfully snatched and took back the pictures between each other until they were all back in the case.

"I suppose it is an opportunity for the kids to see that we were all young once. We all do things that are not sensible and just because we got away with it doesn't mean that they can be reckless. They'll understand that instead of whip these out every time something comes up." Lena reasoned.

"Sure. They'll understand that. Or..." Stef confirmed with a vaguely patronising tone as she delicately pulled out an extremely unflattering photo with a dishevelled looking Lena bracing a near empty wine bottle to her lips. The two hooked eye contact for a moment as Stef's eyebrows raised.

"They're up there being punished for riding with strangers on motorcycles and ditching class to have sex in a car. All the processing in the world isn't gonna help us much here, Lena. These kids have already done stuff that's worse than anything in these photos. They will want these for one reason – to embarrass us."

"That is true."

"So we could go through the awkward details with them, take the digs and see them resurface, scrutinising every details of what exactly is going on in each picture to be held against us in all future discussions. Or..." She paused suggestively as Lena's face contorted, assessing their options.

"Or..."

"Uhuh." Stef agreed briskly as they snapped the wallet shut.

* * *

Stef poked her head out of the bedroom door as she heard the clatter of the ladder, Lena moving to join her behind.

"All done?" Stef asked as Callie nodded. "Yep. 10 boxes all sorted."

"10?" Lena queried calculating that they'd accumulated a few extra family members.

"Well, there's a few generic ones - " Callie began to explain as there was a creak and a well timed thud next to her as Jesus swung down, deciding to forgo the climbing option and replace it with a jump.

"Yeh and _some_ of us are responsible for about half of them." He chimed in as his moms each winced at his entrance, Callie shaking her head gently.

 _"Jesus!"_ Stef scolded him.

"What? I mean Mariana, not me."

"Not the boxes. You can't just jump out of the ceiling! You could break a leg – or worse, dent my floor."

"Nice priorities..." Jesus joked back as Lena stopped Stef from retorting with a squeeze on the arm.

"Just...in the future use the ladder." She ordered as Jesus approached them both, putting his arm around Stef's shoulders.

"Speaking of jumping out of attic hatches, how about those photos? You weren't so cautious about heights when you were pulling mama up on that statue." He jabbed them as Callie shrugged in agreement, knowing it wasn't going to take long.

"You did say we would talk about them later." She challenged as Stef gave her wife an incredulous look, both responding with silence.

"Oh come on!" Jesus complained. "We saw them, you can't pretend we didn't. We get it, you were young once."

"Uhm, less of the _once_." Stef hit back.

"I know what you think you saw, but a picture only tells so much of a story." Lena developed the foundation of her explanation. "And...well Mom and I were both adults on that holiday. Both well aware of what we were doing, able to control ourselves. Sometimes in those circumstances you get caught up in being carefree..."

"Mama..." Jesus cut her off with a raised eyebrow at the seriousness she was placing upon the issue.

"I kind of agree with the kids, sweetheart." Stef took over. "Let me summarise: enjoying life is important. Recklessness has consequences. We didn't do anything we couldn't handle. Take this as a warning that whatever you do you may one day have to talk your kids through the evidence of it and be held accountable. Subject closed." She insisted, nodding her head firmly ready to move on. The kids were not so compliant.

"You just said that you'd have to explain it to your kids and then said case closed." Callie scrunched up her eyebrows at the hypocrisy. "You haven't explained anything at all."

Lena and Stef looked to each other and back to the kids.

"You've not presented us with any evidence." Stef smiled. "There's another life tip. Don't lose your leverage. Thanks for helping with the attic." She pecked Jesus on the cheek with a kiss and began to walk off as her son stood, blindsided and complaining.

"Kop out!" He heckled them as Lena shrugged and moved on after her wife. "Knew it would be too good to be true. They'll never let us see them again and probably try to make us doubt what we saw."

"Probably." Callie smiled, looking far too happy. It didn't take Jesus long to notice she had a cheeky grin forming. He scrutinised her face.

"What?"

"Well..." She began, putting her hands in her pockets. "I just think that this whole experience has been a nice little break away from everything else going on around us...and that it's been nice to feel connected to all of these stories and stuff."

"Right..." Jesus prompted, wondering where this was leading.

"And it sounds like although they don't want to share the memories with us, Moms clearly enjoyed the trip down memory lane. I've been thinking so much about the photos for my project and stuff...it just makes me think we could put some photos from their journey together for them for Mama's birthday maybe. And if some of the ones from today happened to pop up in it...I mean...that was practically a challenge, don't you think?" Callie beamed, her mischievous side pushing through to take advantage of the relaxed tone the afternoon had taken.

"Sounds like it would be a lot of fun. Shame we don't have them anymore though. I can't say I care enough to go hunting for them." Jesus shot the idea down.

"Yeh. The thing is..." Callie pulled something out of her pocket. "You were right that I'd probably start gathering my own stuff soon enough. Would be a shame to let it go to waste." She delicately produced the negatives she had accidentally pilfered as Jesus' smile matched his sister's realising the possibilities now they had the original film.

"We should spend more time together Callie." He grinned, clasping his arm around her shoulders as the two headed downstairs.


End file.
